On the chaotic battlefield, the clash between Zero Wing and Tianzang had drawn the attention of not only the guilds and adventurer alliances fighting outside the teleportation zone, but even the several superpowers within it. They all turned their gazes to reassess the Zero Wing guild.
"This Zero Wing guild really does have some strength. No wonder they didn't even care about our Return of Kings' warnings before. Looks like for this trip to the Ancient Divine Ruins, we could consider teaming up to push through together." Not far away, a resolute middle-aged man clad in dark armor carried a great sword on his back that radiated waves of frigid air, its blade inscribed with arcane runes. He watched the Zero Wing members with a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
The Ancient Divine Ruins was somewhat like an open-world dungeon. To delve deeper into it, one needed to reach a certain threshold of strength, which meant that the further in one went, the fewer players could enter.
Penetrating to the fifth layer of the Ancient Divine Ruins demanded extremely stringent requirements from a player team. In fact, it was no longer something a single guild's team could accomplish. Only by joining forces with other powerful factions could one hope to break through.
And the man's words immediately drew startled reactions from those around him.
No one had expected him to give such a high evaluation of the Zero Wing guild.
The resolute middle-aged man was none other than a top executive of Return of Kings — Benlei Jian Duan Qingcheng, once a legendary figure in the virtual gaming world. Even the current guild master had to show him considerable respect.
And Duan Qingcheng rarely praised anyone or any faction.
The last time he had heaped such praise was on their current guild master. Now for him to speak well of the Zero Wing guild was simply unbelievable.
"Uncle Duan, you think too highly of them. They only managed to push back Tianzang and Blackwater — those nouveau riche. If they want to team up with us, they're still ten years too early." Beside him, a valiant young man clad in dark gray armor, gripping a single-handed axe inscribed with dazzling magic runes in one hand and holding a massive scale shield in the other, glanced at Zero Wing with mild disdain.
"Huang Hai, Uncle Duan surely has his own reasons for saying so. Their team's base stats are very strong, and their overall combat power isn't bad either. After entering the Ancient Divine Ruins, they'd be a decent choice for an alliance." Qi Lian, wearing a pure white holy robe, level fifty and clutching a purple-gold divine staff, shook her head. She didn't entirely share the Shield Warrior Huang Hai's view.
Although Huang Hai was one of the guild's newly promoted Arbiters — one of the rare second-class advanced professionals, with no shortage of judgment and strength — when it came to Zero Wing, she held the same stance as Duan Qingcheng. She felt that Zero Wing's strength should not be underestimated.
In particular, from start to finish, she hadn't seen Shi Feng from Zero Wing's team make a single move. That was proof enough that Zero Wing was holding back. Things weren't as simple as everyone assumed.
"Zero Wing only knows how to deal with players. But inside the Ancient Divine Ruins, we face endless terrifying monsters and all manner of trap formations. Forget about reaching the fifth underground layer — whether they can even clear the third layer is a huge question."
"Remember, aside from our several superpowers, no team has ever made it past the third layer of the Ancient Divine Ruins. You know that place can't be handled with sheer stats alone. Let alone reaching the fifth layer to form an alliance — they can talk about it when they actually get there."
Huang Hai gave a light snort, feeling that Qi Lian was giving Zero Wing far too much credit.
In fact, it wasn't just Huang Hai who felt this way. Many of Return of Kings' experts present also agreed with his sentiment. If they teamed up, the rewards would need to be split. What was Zero Wing? What was Return of Kings?
Did Zero Wing even deserve to take half?
As time wore on, the fighting within the Ancient Divine Ruins' teleportation zone grew increasingly fierce. More and more factions charged into the area. Even though the major powers hadn't particularly wanted to provoke Zero Wing before, for the chance to enter the Ancient Divine Ruins, they were all going all out. Besides, if they dared to kill even superpower members, the Zero Wing guild was fair game.
The battle raged on for over half an hour, its intensity utterly unprecedented. Fallen players littered the entire teleportation zone.
In the end, the major superpowers still claimed the lion's share of the teleportation slots, with a small portion going to the allied forces of first-tier guilds and top-tier adventurer alliances.
And the most astonishing result of all belonged to the Zero Wing guild.